The 30th year anniversary of MACNA 2018 is history and made history too. For the very first time, MACNA was hosted, organized and run by MASNA. MASNA selected the host city, made all of the decisions and ran the entire event with the support of volunteers. Next year will be held in Orlando, Florida, Walt Disney World Resort, and the locations for future MACNA’s have been selected through 2024, but the locations are kept a secret until MACNA when the location for the next conference will be released.
So, what is so great about MACNA? Three days of jam-packed hobbyist conversations, corals that ranged in price from $10 for frags up to $5000 and even $10000 for rare corals and fish. The speaker sessions; wow what a lineup of incredible speakers, world famous to some of the brightest minds doing research that is saving our fish, corals and our oceans, seas, and the planet. The complaint, you did not have time to see all of them and how do you choose, what a dilemma and an incredible problem to have. Great job MASNA!
Sponsors, Manufactures, Wholesalers, and sellers were all very willing to take the time to talk to everyone who had questions. The ability to talk directly to the manufacture of the products and equipment you use is without question a very important reason to attend this conference.
MACNA, is it different from other national events? I spent three days talking to as many of the companies as I could and asked their opinion of the show and if they felt it was a good investment to participate in MACNA and would they be back next year.
Let’s tackle the first question:
Yes MACNA is different – Why, because its focus is education, not retail sales. Education is addressed in every aspect of the hobby, equipment, technology, chemicals, food, breeding, coral sustainability, ocean, seas, coral reefs, and the planet and our future. Educating our kids to get involved and play a role in saving our planet.
Why is MASNA now running MACNA! My opinion and the opinion of some of the vendors is that MACNA was moving away from education and becoming another large selling event for corals and equipment. And frankly, we have enough of those events and possibly too many.
As with any show, there were things that were done very well and things that seemed broken, and overlooked. All of those things that did not work pales to the mission of MASNA and MACNA, education, new technology, advance’s in science and supporting you, the hobbyist and the future of our hobby. I will go next year and the next; I will continue to maintain my membership with MASNA and our local club. I look forward to seeing you all next year.
– DFWMAS President